Urban Organica

this is it

We have a new saying in our family: No Whining.  Just Living.  It's a new rule, said with a smile, aimed at the grownups.  There's a lot I don't know, but I do know this: 

 

This is my only life as Mrs. D.  He is the love of my life.  And these boys will only smile like this right now.  Better but different smiles will come, & tomorrow they'll ask to bring their friends.  Only now is just like this. 

I'm soaking up every single moment.

Welcome to my 100th post.

"On Earth, as it is in Heaven."

Smokey Heirloom Lentils with Salmon

This soup uses a tricky bit of smoked salmon to get loads of flavor with very little ingredients.  It also happens to smell just heavenly.  Designed for a peaceful mealtime, it is totally devoid of onions, tomatoes or greens.  Well, there's one tomato, but you leave it whole.  Somehow, even though they hate "cooked carrots," my kids gobble down "Heirloom Rainbow Roots" like there's no tomorrow.  

This is also called FisherGnome's Stew, as we imagine this is exactly what Gnomes eat after a long day on the ocean.  While chopping the boys hum, "Whistle While We Work," like the 7 dwarves.  The rhythm helps me keep the kids on pace too.  Since it's the evening portion of my 2-Meal Day, I'm generally brain-fried when this gets started & I need it to come together pretty easily.  

FisherGnome's Stew

4 ounces of smoked salmon

1 T olive oil

1 Cup of Wild Rice (We use Lundberg Organic)

1 Cup of Green Split Peas or Lentils

2 bay leaves

6 medium rainbow carrots, chopped

6 stalks of celery, chopped

1 tomato, whole

5 Cups vegetable broth or water + 2 bouillon cubes with sea salt (we use Rapunzel)

Heat the olive oil over high heat in a stockpot.  Add smoked salmon & crisp up a bit.  Place in a bowl, leaving the bits in the pot.  Add rice & split peas, saute until rice is translucent.  Add carrots & celery, saute for 5 minutes.  Add the rest of ingredients, bring to a swift simmer & cover.  Lower heat a smidge & cook for 45 minutes.  To serve, garnish bowls with 2 T of salmon.  This is good with a nice crusty loaf & salad.  Or nothing.

Japanese-Hawaiian Style Omelette

When I was a little girl I went to Nihonmachi Little Friends, a preschool in Japantown, San Francisco.  On Saturday & Sunday mornings my family would go to May's Coffee Shop & get Ma's Special, a sausage omelette with green onions over rice.  Any combination of Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents & Cousins would meet us there, & we'd usually finish our meals with a Tayaki ~ koi fish-shaped pancakes stuffed with sweet red bean paste.  If I was lucky I could head to the Hello Kitty store & pick up a pencil or some Japanese candy.

When my mom was newly single with the three of us, May let her work there under the table.  It became a second home to me.  When D asked my father if he could marry me, we met at May's.  I remember leaving the table so they could talk, & when I returned my Dad was pretending nothing happened.  He wanted D to act like he just couldn't ask me. But he did, & Dad said yes.

My family has spread far & wide, across the country & the world.  There's just a sprinkling of us in the Bay, now, & we still meet at May's.  She's always there, gossiping with the local seniors.  The Hello Kitty store closed this past fall, after 30 years of business.  My beloved grandparents now visit when I'm asleep.  Things change, but the comfort of my family is only one meal away for me.

Japanese-Hawaiian Style Omelette

2 T olive oil

8 Organic Free-Range Eggs, Beaten

3 Scallions, green & white parts chopped

4 Sausage links or patties in bite-sized pieces

~ we make our own Vegetable-Nut Links, & sometimes use Morningstar Veggie Breakfast Patties. 

Sushi Rice

Soy Sauce

Rice:

I use a rice cooker that keeps our rice warm for eight hours.  This way it's always on hand.  To measure like a Local, just pour in what looks like 2 Cups.  Put your thumb into the pot, with the tip just touching the rice.  Pour in enough water to reach your knuckle.  Press Cook!

Brown the sausage in olive oil.  Pour eggs over the top.  Sprinkle with green onions.  As bottom starts to set, lift the edge with a spatula.  Tilt the pan so the rest of the eggs run under to cook.  When the bottom starts to brown, use the spatula to divide the omelette into 4 wedges.  Flip each piece for a second, then lift onto a bowl of hot rice.  

Drizzle with soy sauce.

wake up, mommeee

"Mommy, Mommy!  #2 has your camera!  Mommy mommy wake up!  The 3 year-old has your camera!"

I though it was a good idea, letting them move furniture at 3am on New Year's Day.  

I mean, I was moving furniture, getting ready for the new.  And they Knew.  And they weren't sleeping.  So why not let them join me?

It was a great night.  We laughed & we used screwdrivers & brought heavy objects up & down the stairs.  But let me tell you why not.

Because they would proceed to wake up, every night for the next month & follow me around the house.  Sometimes one child.  Sometimes 2.  And last night, all 3.

The first week I told them to go back to bed & they thought it was funny to ambush me, all smiles, from closets & behind desks.  (Aaaaa!  freakin' a...)  I have to admit it was hilarious, seeing these little skinny minnies, freezing cold in their long johns, hiding for who-knows-how-long before I got to the perfect spot.  And they would go back to bed. 

The second week they kept waking up, wired, but not sure why.  There was something exciting about 2am, but they couldn't quite remember what...

This past week they don't even want to be awake, they just are.  They are agitated, rolling around.  Needing water.  Needing to pee.  Needing to nurse.  Needing to get in my bed.  Inviting me to theirs.  Mekhi has taken to standing over my head & pulling whatever he can get his hands on.  My nose, my ears, my jaw.  "Uuuuugh!"  He says.  "Uuughttt!  Ught!"  I'm pretty darn sure he means "Up!"

I think I've gotten 2 hours a night for the last 7 days.   

We are getting lots done, although it's all in my pajamas + a baby carrier for two drowsy toddlers. Thank goodness for 7 year-olds who can sit by themselves with a pen & paper.   Swollen-faced & happy, I am a sleepyhead.

Wait for it...

Fitting in my breakfast...

Sigh.

Playing on the counter.  With the sink.  With the temperature.  With the sprayer. Okay! That's enough!

Nursing + Healing Lake's twisted knee by singing "The Brady Bunch," on his toes.  "This isn't helping!  Where's Daddy?"   

My answer to all things: the 2 meal day.  A big brunch & a pot of lentil soup.    All I need to get through the day is a stack of bowls & a jar of spoons.  Good night.

*Japanese Sausage Omelette + Heirloom Lentils Recipe tomorrow.

*On the homeschooling table: 

~Dried herbs for making Tea Valentines (tutorial coming)

~Embroidery for a quilt Mahal's making with Grandma, Great-Grandma (95 years young!) & myself

~Blue Yonder's Eggceptional Eggspearment from their Book of Days: soaking brown eggs in vinegar.  They suggested white vinegar, but we also had a bit of apple cider vinegar that needed to go.  They are so fascinated with these jars, checking their progress every couple of hours.  Lake keeps "checking the stinky," on his jar, while Mahal is convinced something is going to happen to the air in his.  The shells are starting to disappear & they are just dying to get their hands on those wobbly things.  

v*burger + jalapeno havarti + fuji apples

I think the baby must be having a growth spurt, 'cause I am one hungry lady.

I'm making myself burgers everyday lately ~ 2 at a time & then some.  This is my latest love:

v*burger + jalapeno havarti + fuji apples

Amy Organic Texas-Style Veggie Burgers

Jalapeno Havarti Cheese (Danish)

Fuji Apples

Spectrum Omega 3 Mayo

Rudy's Bakery Wheat Buns

Micro Greens

Organic Bread & Butter Pickles

Oh, that's acai nectar with sparkling water in my favorite glass, a recycled Strauss Creamery Milk Jar.   

Heaven.  Heaven. 

On Indian Rock

I know, I'm a serious tree-hugger.

The best thing about having siblings?  Best friends who know us inside & out.  My brother Elrik & Sister-in-Love Mimsy just made me the proud Auntie of a little Ravioli.  That's his name, no kidding.  He gets to live into a life of total light & love ~ who doesn't love ravioli?  How can you take him too seriously?

His name's Ravi, actually.  Ravi Kahil, after the poet Kahil Gibran.  But they really just wanted to call him Ravi oli.

And so my Brother Franz & I went to one of our favorite family spots in Berkeley & pretended to take them with us.    And my Dad, who also moved there with my beloved littlest brother Jeric & Mama Des.  They moved to the Philippines & so we intended to photoshop their pictures in.  Only we don't know how to do that.

We always, always have fun, my brothers & I.

Pretending we're spelunking.

It was so lovely we went home & got the rest of the fam.  Of course we had to stop at our friends, Matthew & Terces' restaurant, Cafe Gratitude.

Do you see San Francisco in the distance?

Here...

So here's us, guys!  Up on Indian Rock!!

Crafts of Color, Politics for Kids

Rosa Parks, by Mahal

"Uh-huh, hush that fuss.  Everybody move to the back of the bus." ~ The fabulously creative Outkast

This morning the boys, who generally wake up at 9, were all abuzz by 6 a.m.  They seemed to have caught some invisible windlift passing through & I was vaguely annoyed ~ those are my hours, not theirs.  Some mamas work when the kids go to bed.  I work when they go to bed & before they wake up, if I can.  But they were so happy, checking on the status of the moon & the sun, rushing from room to room as if it were Christmas morning all over again. 

And then Mahal turned on his boombox, technically not allowed in the morning.  And while it usually starts with a request to play it, then a soft bit of children's music, this morning he thought he'd go straight for Outkast, playing the song "Rosa Parks."  I know some of us don't care for rap music, And, I think that's born out of misperceptions & some really bad music.  Some tend to think it's just the self-expression of gangsters.  Not true!

For a bit of truly empowering Children's Hip Hop, check out Lake's favorite song, "I Gotta Be ME!!" by 23Skidoo.

I grew up with hip-hop.  It's one of the only truly American cultural art forms, developed here out of the experiences of Americans.  It's poetry, it's dance, it's percussion & a visual language that can claim pieces in the Smithsonian & the White House.  It's a capella & the body as an instrument.  It's history in the form of movement & acrobatics.  It's something born out of a struggle for people to find their way on a blocked path.  We don't listen to it much, but it's one of the great loves of my life.  D & I were both hip-hop dancers as teenagers.   My dad would take us to a huge lot in Downtown San Francisco called Psycho City to watch master artists create massive art pieces on cement walls.  Distinct from vandalism-style graffiti, these were geniuses participating in a sport ~ if a piece was truly beautiful & worthy of respect, it would stay up for weeks & even months without another artist spraying over it.

Who knows what impact it had on me to see art being made at a building-scale by boys, men & girls with hoop earrings.  To see that kind of freedom, use every color of the rainbow, words mixed with images, words as images, story telling that competed with itself to be good.  Better.  Best.  Where the object of the game was to think outside the box.

I had to laugh, at 6am.  Seeing these boys ~ all three, bumping around the house singing, "Uh, huh!  Hush that fuss!  Everybody move to the back of the bus!"  I lay in bed, & watched them run from their room to ours, knowing perfectly well that D was meditating in another room & that I should probably quiet them.  Then it hit me.  They're excited because it's Inauguration Day. 

Not so long ago, black people had to sit at the back of the bus. 

An older black woman named Rosa was tired.  She didn't believe she should have to get up & move to the back of the bus.

Black people stopped riding the buses for 381 days.  They walked to have the freedom to sit were they wanted.  They walked to have freedom.  The bus companies almost went out of business.

The Supreme Court agreed with them.  It became illegal to segregate people on buses.  Over time it became illegal to separate black people from other human freedoms.  

This allowed other people of color to have such freedoms.   It made a safe space for Mommy & Daddy to be together.  It created a world for me.  

We mixed rice milk + almond milk.  Then we added chocolate milk.  Much more interesting!  But sometimes the best change takes time.

So we froze them.  We'll have them when their ready.  We've done our part, & now we can look forward to them.

Martin Luther King Jr. & President Obama used their voices to inspire freedom & change.  These are our liberty bells.

Des Colores.  All the colors in me, all the colors I see, come together, in a rainbow of one.

Apple-Carrot Birthday Muffins + Homemade Drums

It's easy to celebrate when the birthday boy knows it's his birthday.

I woke up yesterday to a series of sweet-smelling open-mouthed baby kisses all over my face.  He's so serious with those kisses, it's a reverent thing for him.  I have to be very careful not to smile or say, "Oh, boy, kisses!," or he'll just walk off.

 The boys helped me whip up a some birthday muffins for breakfast.  I admit I was risking rejection from the boys here ~ one won't touch apples, while the other won't touch carrots or cream cheese.   Actually, it's just Mahal.  He won't touch all three.  And Lake just does what he does.  But these were very, very popular.

Between the four of us, we finished 24 muffins yesterday.  Really.  They're very sweet & super-healthy all at once.

Mekhi liked them very much, indeed.  He just kept climbing the Learning Tower, poking around at another muffin & then devouring it, before dropping the paper on the floor.  Oh, the assumptive behavior of little guys.  ("I'll clean it up, ahem, Thanks Mommy.")

 

Not that you're worried, but we tempered all that goodness with a hard-core Pilipino breakfast ~ fried fish, rice, eggs, chopped tomatoes & green onions in soy sauce + lemon juice.

The boys went to an African Drums workshop at a gallery in town.  There was an old-school Afro-Cuban drummer playing & explaining his instruments.  They had tons of materials available, & no two drums were even remotely similar.  The boys were very proud to make Mekhi his birthday presents, a shaker & a drum.  I was & am just amazed that they chose to work on these items together, instead of making their own.  With each step they discussed their ideas & came to an agreement.  

Lake picked this wonderful tie-dyed fleece & Mahal beaded the strap on this shaker.

Lake chose a large coffee tin covered in newsprint & feathers.  He was so very determined to use the low-melt glue gun himself, & I only have one small scar from it.  He & Mahal took turns applying feathers & then covered the drum in this lovely rice paper.  The little guy knew exactly what to do with it.

And even though a one year-old doesn't really need us to buy anything...

I've been saving these footsies for a long, long time.  

You know how I was feeling about this guy growing up?  Well, I still feel that way.  And I'm grateful that I can say he's 12 months & 13 months instead of 1 year-old.  

And, this is fun, watching him toddle around, telling us what he wants  & getting things on his own. This is gratifying, watching his two big brothers mix rough love with graceful modeling.  And mostly, this is exciting, to think that soon, my kitchen floor will stay clean-ish, my arms will be less full, & I will really have 3 helpful helpers at my kitchen counter, 3 eager elves at my sewing table.  A wonderful year behind, a sweet year ahead.  I think these are the best times of my life.

Apple - Carrot Muffins (Vegan + Gluten Free)

Pamela's makes a great GF baking mix.  You could add the carrots, apples & spices to any muffin recipe, actually.  Almond meal might not be that easy to find, but it's so worth it.  It's full of protein, flavor & healthy oils, while working as a flour.  It makes muffins really moist & chewy.  

2 apples, peeled & shredded

2 carrots, shredded

1/2 C real maple syrup

3 t EnRgy Egg Replacer+ 4T warm water OR 2 eggs

1/4 C olive oil

1 splash vanilla or 1/2 bean's seeds

2 C Pamela's baking mix

1 C almond meal

1/2 C crushed walnuts

2 t chinese 5 spice

2 t cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350'.

Mix all in a large bowl with a wooden spoon.  Place liners into 2 12-muffin pans.  Fill them only 1/3 full.  We just used one Chinese soup spoon.  Bake for about 12 minutes.

Dust with powdered sugar & almond meal.

If you want to add frosting, blend in a small food processor:

Vegan ~ 2 slices of pineapple + 1/2 C juice, powdered sugar 'till thick.  This will be more of a glaze.  If you have soaked cashews, then you could add 1/2 C & it will be the consistency of cream cheese.

Vegetarian ~ 1/2 block of organic cream cheese + 2 slices of pineapple + 1/2 C juice + 3 T powdered sugar.  

quilted wool home

whee! headboard

wool felt/recycled leather * soy foam insert * hand appliqued * embroidery * contrast piping * sashiko quilting

I was looking through an old Urban Organica business plan & found some sketches of early pieces. 

long & low seating

organic cotton twill * origami applique * non-toxic stain * sashiko quilting * carved fsc wood

When we started UO it was, "a funky design house, hyped on social & environmental responsibility."  It might still be that, but it's more of a creative think tank now.  It's not as important to distinguish a business as eco-friendly, green or sustainable, since, fortunately, it's expected.  This lets me really just be creative & play.  People bring me their most "out-there" thoughts, plans & jumbled up bits.  I help them clarify their ideas, connect them to others & if their project is particularly yummy, get my own hands dirty.  This includes everything from clothing, interiors, workshops, retreats & small business.  I've been fortunate to work with CEO's, Nobel Nominees, & Supermodels.  You know who inspires me the most?  Crafty families.  And my husband.  There's something about love + accountability that makes the most practical  beauty.

One crazy bit is that I've always offered my services for free.  It's a spiritual thing for me ~ I offer what I have to the world, & then Spirit pays me back, randomly, times much more.  It's always worked, oddly enough.  I live a great life that way.

climbing cake tower

3 donut-shaped cushions * 4' tall fsc wood base * beeswax finish * plant dyed wool felt * eco-fill cushions * 4 soft felted "frosting" throws * removable fabric origami flowers * needle-felted candles

Anywhoo...

 

example of the technique

hand appliqued felt * origami-style flowers w/ needle-felted centers * sashiko quilting (the pink-on-black) * needle-sculpting for texture on branches & grass

triple donut ottoman

3 eco-fill cushions * fsc wood base * beeswax finish * plant-dyed wool felt * origami-felt applique 

felt & lucite storage

clear lucite boxes * plant dyed wool felt slipcovers * hand appliqued

felt & lucite storage series in a 3x2 shelving system

double donut side table with carved bowl base

eco-fill cushions * sashiko quilting * origami applique * beeswax finish

Many of these designs were actually inspired by Mahal as a baby, & how much he loved his little stacking toys.  I thought it would be extremely practical to have giant versions he could climb on & take apart, while also providing adult seating or storage.  At our house, they still really use the pillows & couch cushions more than their Legos or blocks.  It's one giant, puffy happy gym!

on reading & writing

you know, dasher & dancer...

Mahal is really into designing cryptic word puzzles right now.  He loves taking themes & choosing words, then creating pages & pages of crosswords, word searches, word scrambles & picture clues.  For Christmas he designed a lovely book for our family & friends.  This is something he's taken on of his own initiative.  Two years ago he asked me to order the Highlight's Magazine series, "Top Secret Adventure," a monthly geography kit that came with real puzzles, a small country guidebook & a workbook.  He fell in love & asked for the "State-to-State" series, too.  There are country & state maps & workbooks all over our house & car.  Lake has a kit of his own &  loves drawing on his Texas map.  In an ironic Waldorf phase I tried to hide these workbooks because I thought the drawings were unattractive & therefore "un-nourishing," & also wanted to keep their minds as young & dreamy as possible.  Luckily Mahal was more committed than I was.

I'm not sure if he can read or not.  He seems to be able to - at the co-op yesterday he said, "Mom, please park your carts here, thank you!"  Just like the sign.  But he's guessing a lot, too.  I can tell because he'll read, "bread bread," on the "banana bread."  In the Waldorf schools they don't teach kids to read until they're 7.  I know many unschoolers let children begin when they're ready, sometimes at the age of ten, even. 

Sometimes I'm anxious to get him reading chapter books as soon as possible, because some 7 year-olds do.  I've always taken pride in getting my first novel, Anne of Green Gables at the age of 6.  I've now read it, & all the other L.M. Montgomery books many times over.  Looking back I realize that I was given the book, but it was my mom reading it, not me.  I was so hooked on the story that it didn't matter if I read it or not.  I truly "got" my first novel at the age of six.  

Recently I was reading out loud to the boys & my brother said, "You read just like mom."  I never thought of that before.  Of course! And...weird! I sound like Mom!  It never occurred to me that in my head, apparently, everything I read sounds like my mother's voice.

When I try to have Mahal work with me on reading out loud, he adamantly refuses to participate.  And we usually get into it a bit.  As a grown-up unschooler I know that really quality learning happens when we do things we love.  I know that any subject can be presented in an exciting & engaging way.  Yet I was in public schools long enough (until 13) that I still find myself trying to force him to learn uninteresting things in uninteresting ways.  More than that I know how easy it is to make a child hate a subject they love.

So I'm really going to follow his lead on this one.  An hour doesn't pass that he doesn't ask me how to spell something because he's making a store sign or putting "Keep Out, there's a crocodile in the freezer" on our refrigerator door.  So I've supplied him with masking tape & he's proceeded to label the house.   He works on his workbooks day & night, literally.  So we just keep them coming.  He spends 2 hours a day conducting Music Together classes for his brother, following along in the music book.  There aren't many pictures in there, & he keeps telling me who wrote the songs & which ones are traditional, so he's deciphering something.  I wouldn't be surprised if he's also teaching himself to read music.  So again, we keep the instruments & music books available & allow him to go all day long.    He loves his magazines - Click, Spider, Big Backyard, & Ask.  On weekends we bike together to the newsstand & everyone gets a magazine.  Then we all read in front of the fire.

rockin' out with homemade mikes

He does adore bookmaking, & will include text with his drawings. So we'll be implementing a lot more of that.  And he'll read one book out loud - Little Bear.  So I've got to go dig that out, too.

But the stories he prefers to hear me read.  And so I will.  In the Waldorf schools they read in a sing-songy but slightly monotonous voice without dramatizing anything.  They believe this lets the child put their own images into the story & also lets their own integrity relate with every character.  They suggest reading the same story over & over for weeks, creating a richly layered world of voice & imagery for the child. They build on this with wax sculpting, puppet shows & costumes of each story.  

I love it all.  It's reading!  And snuggle time with a big boy in his own room who just keeps getting bigger & bigger.